Aave could face up to $230 million in losses after Kelp DAO bridge exploit triggers DeFi chaos

The Kelp DAO and LayerZero bridge exploit that occurred over the weekend has left lending protocol Aave facing potential losses of up to $230 million, depending on how the situation is resolved.

The incident, according to a report from Aave Labs and service provider LlamaRisk published on the Aave governance forum, centers on rsETH, a liquid restaking token issued by KelpDAO. To move rsETH between blockchains, the protocol relies on a bridge mechanism that locks tokens on one chain while issuing corresponding copies on another.

An attacker exploited that setup by forging a transfer message that appeared valid. The system approved the transfer even though the tokens were never taken out of the sending chain, meaning new tokens were effectively created without backing, releasing 116,500 rsETH from the Ethereum-side bridge.

Rather than selling the assets on the open market, the attacker deposited 89,567 rsETH into Aave as collateral and borrowed roughly $190 million in $ETH and related assets across Ethereum and Arbitrum, according to the report. This left Aave exposed to collateral whose backing may be significantly impaired.

Aave Labs said it moved quickly to contain the risk. Within hours, the protocol froze rsETH markets across its deployments, set loan-to-value ratios to zero, and halted new borrowing against the asset.

The outcome now depends largely on how Kelp handles the shortfall. If losses are spread across all rsETH holders, the token would face an estimated 15% depegging (meaning the value of the staked tokens would not match the value of actual $ETH), resulting in about $124 million in bad debt for Aave. If losses are instead isolated to Layer 2 networks, the impact would be far more severe, with bad debt rising to roughly $230 million and concentrated on networks such as Arbitrum and Mantle.

The exploit stemmed from weaknesses in how Kelp verified cross-chain messages using LayerZero. By manipulating this process, the attacker was able to make certain assets appear fully backed when they were not, allowing them to extract value from the system. LayerZero itself was not directly hacked, but its messaging layer exposed flawed assumptions in how Kelp validated cross-chain data.

The incident raised concerns that some positions on Aave were backed by collateral that was mispriced or no longer fully backed, increasing the risk of undercollateralized loans.

In response, users moved to reduce exposure. Around $6 billion in total value locked was withdrawn from Aave following the incident, reflecting a broad pullback as participants reacted to the uncertainty.

The episode highlighted its indirect exposure to external systems. The impact was felt through increased collateral risk, pressure on lending positions, and a sharp decline in deposits as users reassessed the safety of interconnected DeFi infrastructure.

The report said its DAO treasury holds approximately $181 million in assets and that discussions are underway with ecosystem participants to address potential losses. Kelp has not yet outlined how it plans to allocate losses, leaving Aave’s ultimate exposure uncertain as the situation continues to evolve.

Read more: Kelp DAO claims LayerZero’s 'default' settings are what actually caused the massive $290 million disaster